Bloganova
News from Denmark
http://bloganova.blogspot.com/2008/08/immigration-policy-more-recent-comments.html
Aug 1, 2008
Immigration policy - more recent comments
The governing Danish party, Venstre, regrets ever having supported the EU Directive which now appears to be a ticking bomb under the Danish immigration policy, which - as we all know by now - is firm and fair.
DR quotes the speaker for EU, Michael Aastrup Jensen (V), for saying: 'I can understand from other participants in the European Affairs Committee that there were doubts about what we agreed to and how wide were the limits.'
He maintains his criticism of the EU Court: with the verdicts, the Court politicizes. Especially the verdict that eases the possibilities for family reunification according to EU rules is over the top.
Dansk Folkeparti: Rein in the EU Court
The speaker for EU of Dansk Folkeparti, Morten Messerschmidt (DF), has another take on the same substance matter. He feels that it is absolutely possible - and doable - to blame both the EU Court and the now famous Directive for making it easier to get family reunification. And the government must take the initiative on both fronts, says Mr. Messerschmidt.
'You can do both things simultaneously. It is however important that we do not satisfy ourselves with doing one thing only. It is the government who must take the initiative, but we will not tolerate that this is put on halt,' Mr. Messerschmidt emphasizes.
Mr. Messerschmidt also feels that the reason why the Directive was approved by the Danish European Affairs Committee in 2003 was that the government did not want to go against the EU mainstream.
Radikale Venstre: Systematic fraud
In Politiken Morten Østergaard (RV) says right out that the Danish government knowingly and systematically has cheated the Danish citizens who applied for family reunification with a spouse according to EU regulations.
'It is very serious when you cannot ask the authorities for advise and trust the answers given,' he says to Ritzau.
'There is no doubt that the government right from the introduction of demands for affiliation and the 24-years rule has been perfectly aware that Danes - qua our EU membership - had the opportunity to make use of the EU regulations when working in another EU country. Therefore it cannot come as a shock or surprise to anybody,' says Mr. Østergaard.
'The pretended reaction - with surprise and criticism of the EU Court - is a reaction tailor-made to the occasion. The government has been fully aware of these rules.'
Radio democracy
The Minister of Integration declined to meet Mr. Østergaard in a radio debate. Instead Mr. Messerschmidt participated and after the broadcast Mr. Østergaard regretted hearing attacks against himself after being eliminated from the debate.
Social Democrats: No more interpretations
Svend Auken (S) says that unclear EU Directives cannot be tolerated; they must be corrected while time is. Otherwise Denmark runs the risk of situations where the EU Court interprets laws in directions we may not like.
According to the speaker for EU of the Social Democrats, this is the lesson for Denmark after several EU experts have pointed out that in 2003 the Danish European Affairs Committee approved a Directive, which makes it easier to enter Denmark with a foreign spouse.
'You can learn from this that we need to be much more careful with texts of Directives about to be approved - and we must carefully examine possible interpretations. If something is not satisfactory, the position should be clarified before the any verdict is passed,' Svend Auken says.
He emphasizes that he does not have the Directive in front of him (does anybody?) and that his criticism therefore is of a principal nature.
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